Creativity Squared: Why Every Brief and Opportunity Is Inspiring with Ciara O'Meara

Ciara started her career over 15 years ago at Ogilvy Dublin working on Ford, GSK and Coca-Cola. She then moved to an independent agency where she was part of a team that won Ireland's first digital Cannes for O2. Next she moved to DDB in Toronto where she continued to make award-winning work and was on the Canadian Strategy Top Art Directors list, twice. 

Next Paris and London beckoned as she joined BETC and after a few more years, JOINT London. In that time she made global campaigns for the likes of Amazon, Bacardi, Diet Coke and Danone. Her work in more recent years has campaigned for sex worker rights to shared parental rights; helped Taco Bell own the moon; the first song scientifically tested to make babies happy for Danone that also charted number one, and transforming Bacardi back into a global untameable icon.

In 2019 she joined McCann UK where she became one of the first female creatives to be made managing partner while also creatively leading Mastercard for the UK and Europe and helping the brand become more integrated and a TikTok success.

Besides having many industry awards for her work, she’s also personally been selected as a Campaign & Creative Equals Future Leader, The Gerety Awards UK Ambassador, one of The Dots International Trailblazing Women and an IPA Women of Tomorrow Finalist along with being on The Pitch 100 Superwomen list.

As a mother of two boys, she wants to support more creatives who are mothers and launched ‘The Unicorn Union’, a safe space for advice and jobs that is also evolving into a podcast and live events.

Ciara finally joined VCCP in 2023 as creative director and works across a range of accounts including LinkedIn and General Mills.

Person

I would describe my creative personality as excitable - I genuinely find every brief and opportunity inspiring. No matter how boring it might be to someone else, I get excited about the possibility instantly. I’m not even kidding, it could be a pea or a giant gold nugget and I’m in. I just love the challenge and knowing that a great idea can make you think something that’s not interesting is interesting.

With this excitement there’s not necessarily jazz hands, but I would say I’m more of an extrovert than an introvert in the work environment. I definitely like to bring the energy to a team, room or presentation and I will put a lot of effort behind ideas and people that I really believe in. In my personal life, I’m more of the introvert as my husband is an extremely chatty Welsh man. Although you will happily find me dancing and singing with my kids anywhere without a care in the world.

In contrast to my excitable nature I do love routine, but only in how I eat and not in how I think. So you’ll find me having the same thing for breakfast (possibly even lunch) but then I love trying lots of new ways to get to different ideas. Whether that’s a group discussion on a topic, sitting down with a creative team or a planner, looking at GIFs or jamming with Chat GPT. I believe the best unexpected ideas come from weird entry routes. That’s not to say I don’t value the trusty creative team for crafting an idea, I 100% do, but two people can’t be expected to have all the answers - especially in the multi-format world our ideas now have to live in. I believe rather that the more open people are to collaboration, the more interesting and unique an idea can become.

Product

The best pieces of work for me have a really strong truth and then they take that truth and flip it on its head. After that, it all comes down to how it’s executed and how the flip is presented. There’s a saying that the best ideas are ‘20% idea, 80% execution’ and I completely agree with this. People have lots of amazing ideas every day, especially in our industry, but it’s how they come together that makes the difference between forgettable or memorable. 

I do think that the speed we have to work at and the significant number of formats we might have to deliver across a campaign, is not conducive to great craft. AI is starting to help with this but I feel it’s only perpetuating speed versus solving the craft problem completely. We need to take time to look at detail because that’s where the devil is (according to the saying anyway)! 

With craft in mind, one campaign I’m most proud of is ‘Bacardi, Untameable since 1862’, as we spent weeks and months crafting the headlines, type, visuals and layouts for every part of this global campaign. Nothing was rushed and nothing was compromised.

With time in mind, another campaign I’m very proud of is ‘Cow & Gate, The Happy Song’ as creating a song that’s scientifically proven to make babies happy was not a short process! We joked it was the agency ‘baby’ as it literally took nine months in total to create from client presentation to chart release.

In both these scenarios the conversations were had with clients upfront about what was needed to create either category breaking or different-shaped work. Having that clear united front then allows you the time to make great work you’ll all be proud of that will also be effective. Currently you can see some brands and agencies that do this with all their work and refuse to compromise, but 100% there’s room out there for more.

Process

How I come up with ideas and work on projects can differ a lot. However, no matter what the brief or task, I will do a deep dive on the brand's history, then I’ll have a look at their current social presence and see what people are saying about them. Next I might look at old work they’ve done so I know what to stay clear of, and if possible I’ll go see the product/service myself. I’ll begin to jot down ideas whenever they come to me. After all that ‘alone time’ I love to chat about ideas (whether they are well formed or not) with people both in and out of the creative department to get a reaction or build. A lot of the time as a CD, I will give those thought starters to teams and let them develop or run with them.

I personally love to collaborate more than work alone, as I believe no one has all the answers and to make the best ideas you need to get alternative perspectives. It’s not about having lots of people, but I think the right mix of people can create gold if everyone is open to a collaborative process.

Press

There are lots of things that have shaped who I am creatively. The main one would be my Mum. Cheesy maybe? She’s a painter herself and an art therapist but she also taught art for years as a secondary school teacher and was ironically my art teacher.

She was a single parent in the early ‘90s in the west of Ireland when no one was and I saw her use her creativity to afford everything we needed. That has stuck with me and makes me believe that creativity really can solve anything!

In my advertising career, there have been some pivotal moments that have shaped how I developed - I worked at a small independent agency in Dublin called Brando (that has now been bought out) and we worked in ‘odd’ structures. This meant we wouldn’t work as creative teams but as ‘project teams’. The team would include a creative (maybe two), a designer with motion skills, and a programmer. We’d all be briefed together and encouraged to think together too. We made great work, were agile and won some big awards for a small place such as a Cannes Lions and One Show. My ECD here was obsessed with craft and he instilled that in me from day one by taking the time to teach me about type, layout etc.

Another thing that has helped me creatively and fed into my work is working in different countries. I moved from Ireland, to Canada, to the UK. As much as we are all global citizens there were huge differences. That culture clash is a wonderful thing as it enables me to sometimes see everyday ‘normal’ things from a different lens. Working in North America also exposed me to people having no qualms about selling themselves and being confident. At first I found this really cringe but I learned to embrace it - so maybe my jazz hands are Canadian?

Speaking of confidence, another element that I feel that has shaped me is finding the right place for you to grow and having the confidence to know when to move on. Culture is so important for creatives in order to make great work. If you feel like you can’t be yourself and be supported for that then how can you come up with good ideas? No matter how busy or stressful our job gets, that's a key thing for me. I believe the same goes for client relationships and agencies, the ones you can be yourself with are the ones you’ll make the best work with.